The present invention relates to a plasma display panel, particularly to an AC-driven plasma display panel capable of displaying in a matrix manner.
In recent years, with the development of large-scale display apparatus, there is an increasing demand for a thin display apparatus having a small-thickness. Such a thin display apparatus includes for example AC-driven plasma display panel.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional AC-driven plasma display panel, which contains a fluorescent material layer capable of fluorescently light-emitting by virtue of electric discharge.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the conventional AC-driven plasma display panel includes a front substrate 1 and a rear substrate 2, arranged to face each other with a discharge space 7 formed therebetween.
Referring again to FIG. 2, the front substrate 1 has on its inner surface a plurality of row electrode pairs (X,Y) arranged in parallel with one another. A dielectric layer 5 for generating wall charges is formed to cover the plurality of row electrode pairs X,Y. Further, a protection layer 6 made of MgO is formed to protect the dielectric layer 5.
Each pair of the row electrodes X,Y includes a pair of transparent electrodes 4,4 consisting of a transparent electrically conductive film, a pair of bus electrodes 3,3 (metal electrode) each consisting of laminated metal layers for improving the conductivity of the transparent electrodes 4,4.
Further referring to FIG. 2, the rear substrate 2 has on its inner surface a plurality of ribs 10 which are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the row electrode pairs X,Y, and thus the discharge space 7 is divided into a plurality of elongate sub-spaces. Each elongate sub-space accommodates a column electrode A (address electrode) arranged in a direction orthogonal to the row electrode pairs X,Y. In addition, a fluorescent material layer 8 including three primary colours (Red, Green, Blue) is provided to cover the ribs 10 and the column electrodes A.
Then, a discharge gas containing neon and small amount of xenon is sealed into the discharge space. Thus, a plurality of picture elements (discharge cells) are formed by intersections of the row electrode pairs (X,Y) with the column electrodes A.
The conventional AC-driven plasma display panel shown in FIG. 2 is operated in the following manner.
At first, reset pulses are applied to all the row electrode pairs to effect an electric discharge between each row electrode pair X,Y. After the electric discharge is over, wall charges are formed so as to be accumulated in the discharge cells.
Next, picture element data pulses are applied to the column electrodes A, a scanning pulse (selective erasing pulse) is applied to one electrode of each row electrode pair X,Y, so as to effect an electric discharge between the column electrodes A and the row electrodes X,Y, selectively erasing the wall charges, thereby selecting lighting cells and non-lighting cells.
Afterwards, maintenance pulses are alternatively applied to the row electrode pairs, so that only the lighting cells having remaining wall charges undergo repeated discharge emission. Then, erasing pulses are applied to the row electrode pairs so as to erase wall charges. In this way, a picture may be displayed by repeating the above process.
However, in the above discharge cells (including Red discharge cells, Green discharge cells and Blue discharge cells), initial voltages (VR, VG, VB) for starting electric discharge between the column electrodes A and the row electrodes are usually different due to different fluorescent materials and the different thicknesses thereof, as shown in FIG. 3. As a result, a common address margin a for Red discharge cells, Green discharge cells and Blue discharge cells, will become narrower and mistaken discharge will become more often, resulting in a deteriorated display characteristic.